Friend of the site Rachel Hills has a piece in this week’s edition of the UK magazine The Stylist, about the misogyny that marked Julia Gillard’s short but eventful tenure as Prime Minister of Australia. Gillard was ousted earlier this year, replaced by the man she herself had ousted just a few years before. Hills examines the role of misogyny and sexism in the taking down of Gillard:

To understand what happened to Gillard, it’s crucial to first paint a picture of Australia’s political culture, which is in equal parts ruthless and irreverent, full of brutal bon mots and poll-driven leadership changes. As an Australian woman, my earliest political memory is watching the debonair Paul Keating – no stranger ...

Friend of the site Rachel Hills has a piece in this week’s edition of the UK magazine The Stylist, about the misogyny that marked Julia Gillard’s short but eventful tenure as Prime Minister of Australia. Gillard was ...

Good news, antipodean abortion lovers! The Australian government announced today that RU486, the abortion pill, is one step closer to being included in the government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, making it easier for patients to afford.

How easy? Like, between $12 and $36 easy. Which is a far cry from its current cost of $300-$800 (which is about what it is in the US, too).

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek was waiting on the advice of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, which announced yesterday that it will add miseprostol and mifepristone to the list of drugs that should be subsidised by the government. The ABC reports that,

Plibersek says it is an “important first step.”

“Now, we’ll go into a period of making sure that there ...

Good news, antipodean abortion lovers! The Australian government announced today that RU486, the abortion pill, is one step closer to being included in the government’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, making it easier for patients to afford.

If you can’t watch the video, Here’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard most salient charge in brief:

“I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man, I will not. And the government will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man. Not now, not ever. The leader of the opposition says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynists are not appropriate for high office. Well, I hope the leader of the opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing out his resignation. Because if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn’t need a motion in ...

Yesterday, Australian Minister for Families, Community Services, and Indigenous Reform Jenny Macklin made a big announcement: starting in 2013, the Australian government will be providing paid paternal leave so that new fathers can take more time off from work to take care of their kids.

The scheme is clearly designed to make it more culturally normal, as well as more economically feasible, for men to take time away from work.

Yesterday, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration announced that RU486, the abortion pill, will soon be more widely available. RU486 has been legal in Australia for six years, but until now very few doctors – about 187 physicians in a country of 22 million people – could import or prescribe it.

Thanks to Marie Stopes International, that’s about to change. The ABC reports:

… an application by reproductive health group Marie Stopes International was successful, meaning it will now be more widely available.

The TGA says Marie Stopes International will be introducing the drug in a controlled way.

It says only medical practitioners recognised by the group as having completed appropriate training will be able to prescribe the medicines.

Yesterday, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration announced that RU486, the abortion pill, will soon be more widely available. RU486 has been legal in Australia for six years, but until now very few doctors – about 187 physicians in ...

Over the weekend, Sydney police shot two Indigenous men in an attempt to stop them from stealing a car. One of the men is not a man – he is fourteen years old. The two men are in hospital in a “critical but stable condition.”

There’s also video of one of the officers dragging and punching one of the men after arresting him.Today, a few hundred people gathered in the centre of Sydney to protest the shooting.

The Indigenous Social Justice Association responded by organising the protest on Macquarie Street

Aboriginal activist Graham Merritt accused Sydney police of racism.

“It’s time to stand up all you young fellas and be counted. Don’t let this happen to you ...

Over the weekend, Sydney police shot two Indigenous men in an attempt to stop them from stealing a car. One of the men is not a man – he is fourteen years old. The two men are ...

Much ink has been spilled on this site over the past few months on equal pay, and with good reason. It’s one of the most obvious and tangible manifestations of sexism in society today.

We’ve published a guest post on why we can’t wait for fair pay, and a roundup of good reads for Equal Pay Day earlier this week. We even got the chance to interview the poster child for equal pay, Lilly Ledbetter herself. But we haven’t had the chance to cover something quite so progressive as this: a company in Australia is offering new moms double pay for their first six weeks back after maternity leave.

Cool right? I think so too. Yahoo! News is reporting ...

Much ink has been spilled on this site over the past few months on equal pay, and with good reason. It’s one of the most obvious and tangible manifestations of sexism in society today.

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